In Uganda, one of the main opposition leaders, MP and musician Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, has been arrested. On Monday night, a judge in the capital Kampala ordered imprisonment for Kyagulanyi. Previously, he had already been under house arrest.
Former professional musician Kyagulanyi has been working as a political activist for many years, repeatedly leading protests against Uganda's long-term ruler Yoweri Museveni, who has dominated the East African country since 1986. Most recently, an age limit was removed from the constitution for the aging head of state so that he can continue to vote for 74-year-olds.
Last year, Kyagulanyi organized, among other protests against a new social media tax on mobile phones. It is precisely this protest, which was then officially registered, according to his friend lawyer David Lewis, is now being blamed.
Kyagulanyi had been summoned on Monday because of a statement by the criminal police, said Lewis the SPIEGEL. After his arrival there, police had surrounded his car and arrested the activist.
"Bobi is strong, he's alright," Lewis said after visiting Kyagulanyi in the Luzira High Security Prison in Kampala. For Thursday now a court appointment is scheduled, which goes to a dismissal on bail. The arrest has "no real reason except political persecution," Lewis said.
During his house arrest, Kyagulanyi, who was allegedly tortured by soldiers in the US last year, wrote a protest song about police violence and released it over the weekend. In it he appeals under the title "Afande" (love) to the security forces, not to take brutal action against their own citizens. Protests in Uganda are often violently and with great severity resolved.